The history of recorded music in Chicago during the 20th century was broad and deep, traversing sonic areas both familiar and unknown. The earliest crude recordings on Edison cylinders date back to the turn of the century and carry on through the rise of 78s, 45s and LPs cut at major studios like Universal Recording Co., RCA, and Chess by many artists who would become musical icons and household names. But there was no shortage of smaller studios, like P.S. & Paragon, that had great recording equipment and incredible engineers like Malcolm Chisolm and Paul Serrano behind the consoles for ambitious, and lesser known but equally as talented musicians to lay down tracks at well into the ’70s and beyond.

The City of Chicago asked its Cultural Historian, Tim Samuelson, and us to create a 3 hour mix from the earliest sourced recording through 1980 – just before the rise of Chicago’s house music scene. Below is an MP3 of our mix we presented at Millenium Park’s Audio Picnic series, it’s an aural journey of a city whose recorded output & legacy has influenced & changed the scope of the history of music around the world for centuries to come. Enjoy!